Miracles of Jesus: Catching a large number of fish

(Luke 5:3-10)

The Bible describes more than one miracle of Jesus involving the catching of fish. In this incident, described in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is sitting in a boat, talking to people on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Afterwards, he instructs Peter (also known as Simon) to take the boat further into the lake:

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people."

- Luke 5:3-10, NIV translation.

Two of Jesus' 12 Apostles were named Simon - Simon the Zealot and Simon Peter, also known as Peter. Simon Peter and Andrew, who also was one of the Apostles, were brothers. The Sea of Galilee, where Peter sometimes worked as a fisherman, was also called the Lake of Gennesaret.